) A growing number of reporters are circumventing military restrictions in hopes of getting a better picture of the war

Carl Nolte, a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, spent his first few days in Saudi Arabia wandering around Dhahran's International Hotel, mostly reading pooled reports from his peers. Then he moved to Riyadh, where he sat in on military briefings. Finally, exasperated, he climbed into his rented Chevrolet Caprice and simply headed north. He got lost several times on the poorly marked roads but eventually hooked up with U.S. troops, who complained to him about everything from inadequate supplies to late paychecks. Nolte duly sent the news home. "If you sit around waiting for the scraps to be fed to...